Midland Ocean VHF Hand Held
Jun 17, 2009 8:42:45 GMT -1
Post by empee on Jun 17, 2009 8:42:45 GMT -1
As much an apology to Terry (Zebra) as a review - he sent this out to me months ago - and I broke it!
The radio -
Looks a bit naff in white but may be available in black as that's what's shown on the box.
Has all the basic functions although access often requires a combination of a function key in addition to the one you think you want. Apart from being fiddly my main problem with this is unless I use that function regularly I can never remember how to access it.
Says on the box it's 'Splashproof' which sounds to be well short of waterproof so I guess it would need to be 'bagged'
I did have a play with it the night before heading off to Port Dafarch on Monday just to get myself familiarised - then decided to take the batteries back out to recharge them.
Now it does say in the handbook that it takes rechargeble AA's and yes it does - what it doesn't say though is that it doesn't like to give them back!
They wouldn't come out
Honest Terry all I did was try banging the base of the radio onto the palm of my hand a few times - but the little plastic clip that locks the battery cover in place broke off - it wasn't even on a swivel, just a bendy thin section of moulding.
I did get my batteries back though and put them on charge for the morning. I reckoned the belt clip should keep the battery cover in place ok.
It wasn't till next morning on putting the batteries back in that I discovered the radio was now dead - I can only put it down to banging it to get the batteries out.
So I didn't get the check it out on the water.
I don't know what this costs so I can't really rate it against others on the market. It is obviously a budget model but all the same it's bought as a piece of safety equipment in which case I'd recommend looking at something a bit further up the VHF HH food chain - or if money was really tight maybe even a second hand one.
Sorry again Terry - what do you want me to do with it?!
The radio -
Looks a bit naff in white but may be available in black as that's what's shown on the box.
Has all the basic functions although access often requires a combination of a function key in addition to the one you think you want. Apart from being fiddly my main problem with this is unless I use that function regularly I can never remember how to access it.
Says on the box it's 'Splashproof' which sounds to be well short of waterproof so I guess it would need to be 'bagged'
I did have a play with it the night before heading off to Port Dafarch on Monday just to get myself familiarised - then decided to take the batteries back out to recharge them.
Now it does say in the handbook that it takes rechargeble AA's and yes it does - what it doesn't say though is that it doesn't like to give them back!
They wouldn't come out
Honest Terry all I did was try banging the base of the radio onto the palm of my hand a few times - but the little plastic clip that locks the battery cover in place broke off - it wasn't even on a swivel, just a bendy thin section of moulding.
I did get my batteries back though and put them on charge for the morning. I reckoned the belt clip should keep the battery cover in place ok.
It wasn't till next morning on putting the batteries back in that I discovered the radio was now dead - I can only put it down to banging it to get the batteries out.
So I didn't get the check it out on the water.
I don't know what this costs so I can't really rate it against others on the market. It is obviously a budget model but all the same it's bought as a piece of safety equipment in which case I'd recommend looking at something a bit further up the VHF HH food chain - or if money was really tight maybe even a second hand one.
Sorry again Terry - what do you want me to do with it?!
